You remember the impish gentleman on the
harmonium who for decades enriched vocal recitals to the entire satisfaction
the greats of Indian Classical singing for All India Radio and Doordarshan, or
is it Door Darshan…? Who can forget the sharp, if indulgent eyes with which he
surveyed the scene…Ustad Mehmood Dholpuri…His performance was a feast not only
for the ears, but also for the eyes…

A picture is worth a thousand words I sayyyy…

THE HINDU: NEW DELHI: 25 May 2011

Music lovers had barely overcome their grief over renowned classical
vocalist Pandit Bhimsen Joshi's death a few months ago. And now comes the news
of the demise of the country's most acclaimed harmonium player Mehmood Dholpuri.

The article by Rana Siddiqui Zaman goes on to report
tributes by eminent vocalists:

Classical vocalist Shubha Mudgal said: “I first sang with him in 1981 at
Gandharv Mahavidyalaya in Delhi where I was participating in a programme called
Navodit Kalakar. Since then I have been associated with him. The most admirable
thing about him was that apart from his own gharana and its musicians, he used
to give equal importance to other musicians of other disciplines and gharanas.
He had a very big heart. I am very close to his family. All his sons have grown
in front of me. He was the lovable ‘Mehmood Bhai' for me. His passing away is a
personal loss.”

But there is something more to the story. Ustad
Mehmood was the first Harmonium Player to receive the Padma Shri in the year 2006. This landmark Padma Shri spells belated victory for the endearing instrument on
which Indian students first intone sa-re-ga-ma…be
it Pta. Lata, or Pta. Asha, or Pt. Dinanath, or Pt. Robida, or Ustad Amir Khan
or Ustad Allauddin Khan …or Missus and Carl von ‘Bailiff…

We have earlier referred to that ‘sordid saga ofAll India Radio’, where Pt. Keskar continued with the wayward Raj ban on this
soft-spoken instrument called the Harmonium…why should the Pundits of Classical
be so paternalistic we had asked…why can’t the listening be left to the
listener…?

Here is the Ustad himself on the instrument, quoted
by Anjana Rajan in The Hindu dated the 3rd February 2006:

“…Dholpuri, who teaches
music besides continuing an active performing career and whose children play
both the sarangi and the harmonium, takes a balanced view. "If the sarangi
can produce meends and gamaks, which we cannot, the harmonium can produce chords,
which they cannot, so there is no point in comparing the two."

This is what the well-known AIR
artiste Pt. Naresh Kapuria said on the occasion:

"Main is award ko choomta hoon,"
he declares with enthusiasm. "I would like to congratulate the person
whose idea this was. This is a great recognition for an accompanying
artiste."

We again quote in support of the Harmonium Ms.
Mudgal, incidentally, a senior of Missus at Allahabad University, a disciple of
Pt. Ramashray Jha:

“The harmonium is a
keyboard instrument brought to India by missionaries in the second half of the
19th century. Today, virtually every Hindustani classical vocalist specializing
inkhayalandthumri-dadrais
accompanied by the harmonium, despite it being considered inappropriate for
Indian music by many, including a certain John Foulds, who headed the Western
music section of All India Radio (AIR) in the 1930s.

Foulds stated in an article that the inability of the
harmonium to produce microtones orshrutisrendered
it inappropriate for Indian music. His opinion led Lionel Fielden, controller
of broadcasting for AIR (earlier known as the Indian Broadcasting Company), to
ban the harmonium on AIR broadcasts in March 1940. This indictment by the
British has continued to shadow the journey of the harmonium in India long after
the nation became independent
(till 1971)… If this isn’t a classic case
of a colonial hangover, what is?